Breakfast
by Lil-Samuu
Summary: Sheena thinks about her future while eating breakfast. Bliss timeline oneshot.


"Bliss" timeline oneshot piece of fluff (unsurprisingly :) ). Featuring Sheena and only Sheena this time. No Lloyd and Colette, those two chibis were taking a break during this fic :) Once again I've assumed Mizuho's kinda based on Japan.

Spoiler warning: this fic is set after the end of the game and so contains mild spoilers.

Dedication: to the person who could, perhaps, be referred to as my "Sheena", even though he's a bloke. A person who I think would make a good ninja and who is a great oniichan :) I hope he enjoys the fic :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia. Namco own it I believe. It's a good thing they own it considering I only seem to be capable of writing fluff most of the time :)

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Sheena smiled as the sun warmed her face. It was a quiet, peaceful morning and she'd decided to eat breakfast outside, watching the sun rise lazily in the sky. The breakfast laid out on the small, low table in front of her was one she was familiar with, the sort of thing she'd had for her morning meal since she was little. She'd missed eating the traditional style Mizuho meal while on the quest to reunite the two worlds. Colette seemed to rather like Mizuho style food and the two had shared the meal of rice, miso soup and other such things occasionally in the morning but most of the time breakfast had been toast, something that seemed bland compared to the range of tastes and textures she was tucking into now. There had been cereal sometimes too, although she didn't like many kinds of those. One in particular, muesli, tasted vaguely like she imagined soggy shredded cardboard would taste. Puffed rice was alright though. 

Her smile widened as she remembered Colette's reaction to that particular type of breakfast. Despite the fact that the blonde must have had it many times before each time she'd eaten it on the journey she'd always been amused by the sounds it would make as she poured milk over it.

The summoner slowly picked up mouthfuls of her meal with chopsticks, something else she'd missed, as she thought about the day ahead of her. Later in the morning she was planning to spend time with her grandfather. She wanted to learn as much from him about how to run the village well as she could. She was still a little apprehensive about taking over the role as chief of their small village but she was determined to do her best. Her grandfather was a wise man and, she figured, she still had a lot to learn from him before he retired.

Then, after lunch, she decided she'd like to do some training. Despite the fact that the world was now peaceful she still liked to keep in shape, to keep her senses sharp. Skills she had relied on in the past may come in handy again some day. And, of course, it was always good to spend time with the other villagers, to let them get used to her so that when she took over as chief they were comfortable with her.

There were still some people in the village who seemed a little uneasy around her. She partially understood this, after all it was her who had caused Volt to bring devastation upon the village all that time ago. However she hadn't meant to do that and secretly sometimes felt that others were to blame too, trying to get her to achieve too much too young. They also seemed to ignore the fact that she had been part of the group who had reunited the worlds and put a stop to the cruel cycle of Chosen sacrifices. This, she thought, had helped the village because mana was constant instead of ebbing and flowing depending on which world had been in decline, and the village no longer had pressure from those in Meltokio to carry out tasks for them or justify being left alone by making sacrifices such as when she had been sent for testing in connection with Summon spirits.

She sighed softly, thinking of Corrine for a moment. She still missed having the fox-like summon spirit around to talk to. Corrine had been a wonderful companion, always there when she needed him but never intruding or disturbing her when she wanted to be alone. Well, almost never. Occasionally he'd talk to her when all she'd thought she'd wanted was peace and quiet, but somehow she'd always felt better for talking to Corrine.

She would have to do her future job without Corrine by her side to help her and guide her though. And she would have to do her best to be a chief that even those people who still looked at her with what seemed like loathing or perhaps even hatred in their eyes could feel confident with, even if they still didn't particularly care for her as a person.

She wouldn't be totally alone though, she had friends who would help her, both inside of the village and further away. She would, she decided as she finished the last morsels of her breakfast, be alright. She took her empty plates and bowls indoors, washing and drying them, putting them back in their places in the kitchen, then glanced at the clock. She still had some time before she was due to meet up with her grandfather and decided a walk would be a nice way to use the time.

She wandered out to a patch of land on the edge of the village where various crops had been planted. She walked among the different plants, pausing to sniff at ones which produced pleasant scents and plucking the occasional weed. She spotted a slight movement and moved towards it, thinking it might be a bird trying to eat one of the plants, fruits or vegetables, and was surprised when she came across a small girl sitting close to some of the taller plants which swayed gently in the breeze.

"Are you alright?" the summoner asked softly, wondering what the child was doing out here alone.

"I'm fine, thank you, just watching the clouds," the girl responded politely.

Sheena smiled and sat down beside the child who was lying on her back, staring up at the sky.

"Any interesting shapes today?" Sheena asked.

"Not many, there was a bunny shaped one a while ago, but that's moved on now. That one looks a little bit like a puppy with a fluffy tail," the girl replied, pointing up to a cotton wool-like cloud slowly drifting across the sky. Sheena couldn't help but laugh.

"I think you'd like to meet a friend of mine, she likes spotting shapes in clouds, and would probably be delighted to find one that looked like a dog with a fluffy tail," the summoner smiled.

"Was she one of the people who you were with on the journey to reunite the two worlds?" the girl asked, rolling over then sitting up.

"Yes, she was," Sheena nodded. She and the child were quiet for a moment before the girl broke the silence.

"I'm glad you're going to be the new chief," she said solemnly.

"Why's that?" the summoner asked, wondering why someone so young had thought about matters which probably didn't seem to concern her if she was like the other children, living for the moment and happy as long as they didn't have too much homework or too many green vegetables for dinner.

"Well, someone who was strong enough to go through all that you must have to achieve what you did must be very brave, and smart. And a special kind of brave too, not brave like, say, picking up a big spider or telling ghost stories at night then not being frightened, something," the child searched for the word she wanted, frowning when she came up with one that worked but that she didn't seem entirely pleased with. "Braver."

"Thank you. Sometimes I didn't feel very brave," Sheena said quietly.

"Well then, that shows how brave you are. You're braver than those boys who say they aren't scared when they go and catch frogs in that pond where the big fish with the sharp teeth lives," the girl replied, smiling. Sheena laughed softly.

"Well, I'm glad at least one villager has confidence in my ability to be a good chief," she said softly.

"You'll do fine," the child nodded, smiling. Another child called out from the edge of the field and the girl called back. She said goodbye to Sheena then left to meet her friend.

As Sheena walked to her grandfather's house she glanced up at the sky and noticed that the dog-shaped cloud was still in the sky. Another interestingly shaped one had joined it, one that looked rather like a little fox-like creature. She smiled then continued walking, feeling like her day was going to turn out to be a good one.


End file.
